


Forever

by LicieOIC



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Sweethearts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 11:46:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1225108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LicieOIC/pseuds/LicieOIC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Smith meets Rose Tyler on the playground.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [larxenethefirefly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/larxenethefirefly/gifts).



> Written for Larxy, because she always writes us such lovely ficlets on the weekends.

He sat at one of the abandoned lunch tables, sniffling, trying not to let the tears come. It was his first day at a new school and the mean kid named Koschei had stolen his lunch and, with it, his favorite blue lunch box. Just because he was new and his hair looked like he’d ‘stuck his finger in a light socket.’

Suddenly, a hand holding a banana came into his line of vision. A little girl with long blonde pigtails was standing next to him. "Want it?" she asked.

Her light brown eyes looked soft and kind. He nodded mutely and took it from her, gratefully.

She grinned and grabbed his other hand. "Let's go get your lunch box."

Smiling at his new friend, he stood from the table and tugged her along, saying, "Run!"

A little later, they sat side by side on the swing set, sharing a package of crisps between them, the lunch box in his lap. After being on the receiving end of a Rose Tyler slap, Koschei had run off, crying. Some of John's lunch had still been inside the battered blue box.

“Wanna get married?” she asked during a lull in their conversation.

He scrunched up his nose as he thought about it. “For how long?”

“Forever,” she said.

He tilted his head, then nodded. “Yeah, all right.”

"Where?" she asked.

"The moon, I think."

The next day, they climbed to the top of the round jungle gym and claimed their "moon" in the name of Rose Tyler and John Smith. She gave him a ring she'd made out of thread, friendship bracelet style. He gave her a ring he'd gotten from the coin machine at Tesco's. It had a plastic stone the same color has his lunch box. She kissed him on the cheek and he blushed, making his freckles stand out on his pale cheeks.

"What now?" she asked.

He thought it over. What did the grown-ups do when they got married? "Wanna come over to my house?"

She grinned. "Yeah!"

They were inseparable until John's family moved again at the end of the year, new town, new school. Rose never forgot the boy who married her on the playground, though the memory drifted further and further back in her mind as she grew older, left school, dated (though it never went anywhere serious), and eventually came to work at a call center.

Just her luck, they gave her the cubical next to the "employee of the month." The others around the office said that he was _always_ the EOTM, and the managers called him ‘the Doctor’ because of his speed in answering the customer’s questions and his ability to calm and befriend any irate person. And that was all well and good, but he seemed not to notice just how enthusiastic he was during his calls. She was constantly having to drown out the sound of his loud, exuberant voice with her call volume.

At the end of the day, she popped her head over the cubical wall separating them, intent on setting him straight before it went any further.

He was just taking off his headset and running a hand through his tousled brown hair. He blinked big dark chocolate eyes at her and smiled. “Hello!”

“Hi,” she said. “Look, mind keeping your voice down? There are other people taking calls, you know.”

He stood up, unfolding his lanky frame from the chair. “Sorry, I wasn’t aware. Of the loudness,” he clarified, “I do know that other people work here. Would be an awful lot to do if it was just me, after all!” He stuck out his hand, extending it to her over the wall. “I’m John.”

She took it, giving him a brief, but firm, shake. “I’m Rose.”

Recognition sparked in his eyes. “I used to know a Rose.”

“I used to know a John,” she said.

“Fairly common name, that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Look, sorry for being so loud, I just really enjoy helping people. Can I buy you a drink to make up for it?”

She considered. He was a bit fit, maybe a little foxy. Out of habit, she played with her necklace, the pendant coming free from underneath her blouse.

His mouth parted as he looked at the plastic ring hanging from the chain. “Rose Tyler,” he said slowly.

She looked up at him, startled. “Yes? How did you know my last name?”

He chuckled, a bright grin on his face, as he dug into the pocket of his pin-striped jacket, pulling out a wallet. He reached inside, then held out his hand for her to see what he’d retrieved. In the center of his palm lay a length of woven thread, dingy and broken, but she recognized it even so. She knew it had once been tied in a circle around a little boy’s finger.

“I know it because you insisted I change my name to it, rather than you take on ‘Smith.’” He tucked it safely away and beamed at her. “Now, how about that drink?”

A year later, John took Rose on a picnic lunch and presented her with the old blue lunch box. Inside, she found a banana, a package of crisps... and a silver ring with a round sapphire, flanked by two small diamonds. When she looked up, John was on one knee, smiling.

“Wanna get married?”

Tears began to well up in her eyes. “For how long?”

“Forever.”


End file.
